Cartoons, Cartoons, Cartoons—The Good, the Bad, and the Stupid

Richard Silverstein does a good job of putting the Danish anti-Muslim cartoons in context. As he mentions, and as NPR failed to mention this morning, the cartoons were published in a growing right-wing anti-muslim atmosphere. This was a calculated provocation. They're also pretty darned pedestrian.

Meanwhile, Toles and the Washington Post respond (indirectly) to the letter (PDF) the Joint Chiefs sent about the Toles editorial cartoon. Looks to me that, once again, the political-military establishment attempts to divert attention from its screw-ups by calling critics defamers of the soldiers.

Use BugMeNot to avoid the registration hoo-ha with the Post article.

UPDATE After all of the riots, etc., I'm thinking we should put together a two-page spread of cartoons that make fun of each and every major religion, publish it in every major paper in the world, and have done with it.